Review of Piranha

Introduction

I`ve not seen Piranha for many many years, and aside from the Piranha attacks, I didn`t remember the film offering much of note.

The plot is pretty simple, a couple trekking in the mountains come across a seemingly abandoned research facility and take a dip in the pool under the moonlight...When a search party starts looking for them, they drain the pool into the nearby river, not knowing the horror that they have released.

The fight is then on to get down river and stop the deadly fish before they reach a children`s summer camp.

Video

The video is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and I must admit that given my low expectations of this disc, I was very surprised to find that the picture was very crisp and clear, with limited grain and dirt - certainly one of the best transfers of a low budget 1978 movie that I`ve seen.

As far as the visuals go, the film is in the vein of Jaws, with many of the attacks taking place off camera, with the viewer only seeing the victim swimming, struggling and then the water all around turning red. Aside from that, there is the infamous scene where a man dangling his feet in the water gets attacked, which used to freak me out years ago, but is a little tame now.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital Mono, and adequately reproduces the dialogue and sound effects. As you might expect from a 24 year old movie with a mono soundtrack, the sound is not very exciting, but the voices are at least clear and understandable.

Features

The only extra on offer is the trailer.

Conclusion

Piranha is a cheap imitation of Jaws, replacing the giant shark with hordes of vicious tropical fish. Twenty odd years down the line, Spielberg`s classic movie is still as watchable as ever, and Piranha is a second rate B-movie, that doesn`t offer much of note.

The video is surprisingly well presented, and the soundtrack adequate. The disc only features the trailer, but in truth it is unlikely that anyone would actually be interested is any other extras.

At £12.99, the value is reasonable, but if you haven`t seen the film before and are desperate to see it, perhaps renting it would be more sensible.